Democratic News

The theme of this year’s National African American History Month, Black American Women in American Culture and History, recognizes the role African American women have played in shaping the character of our nation and the many unique contributions they’ve made -- and are making -- to our culture and society.  

Last year, we featured a series of blog posts from African Americans across the Obama Administration that offered a glimpse into the work they do, including posts from several women serving in the Administration.  Below, read the story of Dr. Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the United States, and follow the links at the bottom to read more posts from African American women in the Administration.

As Surgeon General, I am privileged to serve as “America’s Doctor,” providing the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. I also oversee the operational command of 6,500 uniformed health officers in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. These officers serve in locations around the world to promote, protect, and advance the health of the American People.

I grew up in Daphne, Alabama, and graduated from high school in the nearby town of Fairhope. I received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Xavier University in New Orleans and attended Morehouse School of Medicine before receiving my medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I later obtained a masters’ degree in business administration from Tulane University in New Orleans. After completing my family medicine residency in Macon, Georgia, I established a clinic in a small fishing village in Alabama to help its many uninsured residents. That clinic in Bayou La Batre is still operating today, despite being destroyed by Hurricane Georges in 1998, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and a devastating fire in 2006.  President Obama nominated me for the Surgeon General’s post in July 2009, and I was confirmed by the Senate for that position in November of the same year.

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Ed note: This post originally appeared on The Commerce Blog, the U.S. Department of Commerce's official blog.

Today, in conjunction with the newly-launched BusinessUSA initiative, the Department of Commerce announced the launch of their business app challenge.  The $10,000 contest challenges app developers to find innovative ways to utilize Commerce and other publicly available data and information to support American businesses. The business app challenge calls on developers to utilize at least one Department of Commerce data set in creating an application that assists businesses and/or improves the service delivery of Business.USA.gov to the business community.  Developers may choose the platform that best suits them. Applicants may design for the web, personal computer, mobile handheld device, or any platform broadly accessible to the open Internet. A list of developer-friendly data sets can be found on the Business Data and Tools page of Data.gov.

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My President and Commander and Chief, Barack Obama, has accomplished more in four years than the preceding administration did in eight years. He ended a war in Iraq, destroyed al Qaeda and help remove Gaddafi from power in Libya. President Obama has made this country safer. He has the economy going in the right direction and 32 million more American citizens now have health insurance. Those are just a few of the outstanding achievements he has accomplished.

President Obama has already made a positive impact on American history with his accomplishments.

As a 91-year-old World War II Disabled Veteran, I am tired of people complaining about my great President and the Commander-in-Chief. I know this could possibly be the last presidential election I see. I yearn for the chance and the honor to be a part of this presidential campaign and work with President Obama on his re-election. As a senior citizen and honorable veteran of America, I look forward to doing my part in this effort.

As a native of Missouri I know how important agriculture is to our society. This is why I was so glad to see U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack sit down with Judy Woodruff to talk about the great work the Obama Administration and the US Department of Agriculture are doing.

Highlighted in the article is the fact that agriculture is the second most productive sector of the US economy with farm exports helping to support 1.15 million jobs here in the US and farm unemployment dropping faster than most jobs that require specialties.

Also highlighted are the 456,000 home loans the Department of Agriculture helped arrange over the past three years with Vilsack saying “it’s our mission to do this; we’ve been working hard to improve the quality of life for people living in rural areas.”

These investments in agriculture continue with President Obama’s 2013 Budget calling for such things as a 23% increase in funding for DOA’s competitive grants program; an increase in the record number of acres of working land in conservation programs; and maintaining a strong safety net to ensure one bad crop won’t put farmers out of business. These programs help ensure the continued success of farming and the many businesses built around it that are so important to the great state of Missouri and this country.

Click here to read Judy Woodruff’s article and here to read Secretary Vilsack’s statement about President Obama’s 2013 Budget and its benefits to farmers.

Last week the Obama Administration and the Department of Interior released the draft plan for implementing the Cobell Land Consolidation Program. In the works since May 2011, in consultation with tribal leaders, the Cobell Land Consolidation Program will facilitate the voluntary buy-back of fractioned trust and restricted free land interests owned by individual American Indians.

With a fund of $1.9 billion the Plan is focused on three areas:

• Program 1: Targeted land Fractionation Program to reduce land fractionation in highly fractionated areas
• Program 2: Willing Seller Program to provide flexibility in purchasing fractionated interests from willing sellers
• Program 3: Cooperative Agreements with Tribes to recognize the Department of Interior is exploring criteria that would allow tribes to seek cooperative agreements

The comment period for the draft plan is open until March 19, 2012. For more information on the Cobell Trust Land Consolidation Program please visit: www.doi.gov/cobell . To read the entire White House press release click here.

Last night, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted an incredible group of performers for a night of blues music as part of the PBS "In Performance at the White House" series. After a little encouragement from the legendary B.B. King, the President took the mic from Mick Jagger, and sang a few lines from, "Sweet Home Chicago." Watch:

In welcoming the crowd to the White House, President Obama talked about the origin of the blues:

This is music with humble beginnings -- roots in slavery and segregation, a society that rarely treated black Americans with the dignity and respect that they deserved. The blues bore witness to these hard times. And like so many of the men and women who sang them, the blues refused to be limited by the circumstances of their birth.

The music migrated north -- from Mississippi Delta to Memphis to my hometown in Chicago.  It helped lay the foundation for rock and roll, and R&B and hip-hop. It inspired artists and audiences around the world. And as tonight’s performers will demonstrate, the blues continue to draw a crowd. Because this music speaks to something universal.  No one goes through life without both joy and pain, triumph and sorrow. The blues gets all of that, sometimes with just one lyric or one note.

King and Jagger were joined by Jeff Beck, Trombone Shorty, Keb' Mo', and a host of others.

Here's the full set list:

1. “Let the Good Times Roll” (Ensemble)
2.. “The Thrill Is Gone” (B.B King)
3. “St. James Infirmary” (Trombone Shorty)
4. “Let Me Love You Baby” (Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck)
5. “Brush With The Blues” instrumental (Jeff Beck)
6. “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (Mick Jagger)
7. “Commit A Crime” (Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck)
8. “Miss You” (Mick Jagger, Shemekia Copeland, and Susan Tedeschi,)
9. “Beat Up Guitar” (Shemekia Copeland, Gary Clark, Jr.)
10. “Catfish Blues” (Gary Clark, Jr.)
11. “In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)” (Gary Clark, Jr.)
12. “Henry” ( Keb’ Mo’)
13. “I’d Rather Go Blind” (Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes)
14. “Five Long years” (Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark, Mick Jagger)
15. “Sweet Home Chicago” (Ensemble)

Other "In Performance" events have honored Motown, country, and a concert celebrating the Hispanic musical heritage.

The entire concert will air on PBS next Monday, February 27.

 

I support President Obama because he has put forward a social, political and economic vision for the United States, which ensures that we will continue to prosper in the 21st Century.  For too long, politicians in Washington failed to understand that our nation was crumbling, and little action was taken to find solutions to some of our most pressing issues.  Everything from our bridges, and tunnels, to classrooms and community colleges has suffered from a lack of investment.  Thankfully, President Obama has seized the moment to turn things around.

While he inherited an economy that was spiraling towards a second Great Depression, the president seized the initiative and began laying the foundation for an economy that is built to last.  Not only did he include important funding to keeping teachers in our classrooms and cops on the beat through the Recovery act; but the President is also trying to renew the American values that made the middle class – values like fairness and opportunity where everyone plays by the same rules.  And educating future generations so they can compete against countries like India and China is central to his blueprint.

The President launched “Race to the Top” to rewards schools that provide quality programs for vulnerable children across the country.  And the President has also made a deeper commitment to HBCUs, investing $850 million for these institutions over the next 10 years.  And he’s made it clear to all agencies that supporting HBCUs isn’t just a job for the Department of Education.

While we’ve come a long way over the last three years, there’s still plenty of work left to do.  Click here if you want to learn more about how the President is trying to build an America that lasts.

At 10:00 AM ET, President Obama will deliver remarks at the ground breaking ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Watch it live right here.

Vice President Joe Biden holds a conference call in the West Wing to thank first responders and to discuss the economic value of increasing spectrum, Feb. 21, 2012. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Today, Vice President Biden met with law enforcement officials, firefighters and public safety groups in the Roosevelt Room and spoke to a couple hundred more first responders by telephone to thank them for their service and to discuss the new nationwide public-safety broadband network included in the Payroll Tax Extension legislation. 

Members of the audience included police chiefs and sergeants from the New York City Police Department, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the National Association of Police Organization, among others. The Vice President discussed the need to ensure the safety of first responders and the public,and announced a new report from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) that discusses the positive benefits of wireless broadband for public safety as well as jobs, growth, and investment.

The report illustrates the economic impact of President Obama’s goal of doubling the amount of spectrum available for wireless broadcast over ten years, while adopting a nationwide inter operable wireless network. 

Vice President Biden said the expanded access “will enable new spectrum to be used for innovation, to speed wireless communication, and to fulfill a promise made to first responders after 9/11 that they would have the technology they need to stay safe and do their jobs.”

“I’ve been working on changing the way we allocate spectrum for a long time,” Vice President Biden said, “because a smarter system is good for our economy, good for innovation, and vital to keeping our communities as well as our cops, firefighters and EMTs safe.”

A new report from the Council of Economic Advisors found that by 2015, U.S. mobile data traffic will be 20 times higher than it was in 2010.

To provide for this projected traffic growth, much of it due to the increase in usage of smartphones, tablets, and other internet-enabled mobile devices, the Obama Administration has proposed making an additional 500 MHz of public airwaves, known as spectrum, available for wireless broadband access.

Making wireless broadband more widely available has the potential to transform many parts of the American economy, opening the door to everything from products that make businesses more productive and tools that help doctors and nurses provide better health care at lower costs to making it easier for people to interact with media-rich mobile apps and high-definition streaming video.

In addition, wireless broadband plays a vital role in enabling emergency personnel to communicate efficiently and to obtain necessary information quickly, including real-time videos, images, and other data, even when first responders are working across jurisdictional lines.

Today, Vice President Biden announced a new nationwide public safety broadband network that President Obama will soon sign into law as part of the payroll tax extension. The new legislation will create a nationwide inter-operable public safety broadband network that will, for the first time, allow law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs to have a dedicated communications network so they can talk with one another.

Read more about the benefits of a robust wireless broadband system in the CEA report.

Since the formation of the White House Rural Council in June 2011, we have had a unique opportunity to provide recommendations on how to grow the economy and create jobs in rural America.    

The feedback we’re providing to the White House, based on our travels throughout the countryside, has helped us find creative ways to move the country forward without relying on Congress to act because rural Americans can’t wait.

Today's announcements are the result of the Rural Council’s ability to cut across large federal agencies to deliver results for rural families and businesses.  Along with colleagues at the Departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, and Labor, we announced three new ways to leverage existing programs and funding to drive economic growth in rural communities.

These announcements include:

• Promoting A Bioeconomy:  President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum today directing the federal government to dramatically increase the purchase of biobased products over the next two years, which will create jobs and drive innovation where biobased products are grown and manufactured.  The biobased products sector marries the two most important economic engines for rural America: agriculture and manufacturing.  
• Rural Jobs Accelerator: We are launching a national competition, providing about $15 million for projects that promote innovation-fueled regional job creation.  The competition will combine funding from USDA, the Economic Development Administration, Delta Regional Authority and the Appalachian Regional Commission. USDA will utilize our Rural Community Development Initiative program to support this effort and provide technical assistance and training funds to qualified intermediary organizations to develop their capacity to undertake housing, community facilities, and community and economic development projects in rural areas.  
• Rural Health IT Workforce:  The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor signed a memorandum of understanding to connect community colleges and technical colleges that support rural communities with the materials and resources they need to support the training of Health Information Technology (HIT) professionals that work in rural hospitals and clinics.  

Click here to learn more about the efforts of the White House Rural Council.

President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, discusses the importance of the agreement passed by Congress to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance while speaking in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Feb. 21, 2012. The President urged Congress to build on the success of the agreement by taking additional steps to create jobs, grow the economy and help the middle class. The President and Vice President were joined by Americans who have shared their stories on WhiteHouse.gov and Twitter about what $40 a paycheck means to them. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

This morning, President Obama hosted an event at the White House to talk about the payroll tax cut -- which Congress voted to extend last week.

Flanked by a group of Americans who shared stories about what they would be forced to give up without the tax cut, he gave credit to all of those who added their voices to the debate:

This got done because of you; because you called, you emailed, you tweeted your representatives and you demanded action. You made it clear that you wanted to see some common sense in Washington. And because you did, no working American is going to see their taxes go up this year. That's good news. Because of what you did, millions of Americans who are out there still looking for work are going to continue to get help with unemployment insurance. That’s because of you.

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Tomorrow, Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will embark on a three-day “Community College to Career” bus tour to highlight innovative industry initiativesthat are helping train students with the skills they need to meet area workforce needs.

President Obama recently announced an $8 billion Community College to Career Fund, co-administered by the Department of Labor and Department of Education,which will help forge new partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train two million workers with skills that will lead directly to jobs.

During the tour, Dr. Biden and Secretary Solis will visit several community colleges to learn about model industry partnerships, but we know there are many more success stories around the country (check out the full schedule below). We want to hear from community college faculty, students, business and community leaders about how these partnerships have benefited you and your community.

Check out this video from Secretary Solis asking for community college faculty, students and industry partners to share their stories.  Got a story to share? Head over to WhiteHouse.gov/CommunityCollege/Tour to tell us about it or share your story on Twitter using the hashtag #CCtour.

Here’s the full schedule for the bus tour. 

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Tomorrow night, Arizona will host the latest Republican presidential debate. With just a week till the state's primary, voters are getting to know Mitt Romney and the cast of characters who want to be the GOP nominee. They're quickly coming to discover, as Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz put it today, that "Romney is simply wrong on every issue that is important to Arizonans."

That's because Romney wants to revert to the failed economic policies of the past that wreaked havoc on our economy and would once again stack the deck against working and middle-class families. He and fellow candidate Rick Santorum have proposed budget plans that would explode the deficit by trillions of dollars and force deep cuts to programs that matter to the middle class—programs like Medicare and Social Security.

And in a state with a large Latino population like Arizona, the choice couldn't be more fundamental on issues that matter to Hispanic Americans: In an attempt to garner favor with the Tea Party, Romney and the Republicans are campaigning on slashing funding for education, Medicare, and Social Security. They oppose the DREAM Act and a path to citizenship for immigrants.

Romney's far-right position immigration stands out to Rep. Xavier Becerra, who calls him "the most extreme presidential nominee of our time."

"There’s a saying in Spanish that sums up Romney’s problem with Latinos. It goes, 'Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres.' It means, 'Tell me with whom you walk and I will tell you who you are.' Well, the Latino community has seen who Romney’s friends are. And that’s all we need to see to know exactly who he is.

"Romney proudly announced the endorsement of Kris Kobach, the godfather of the Alabama and Arizona anti-immigrant laws. Then he flaunted the endorsement of none other than California’s Pete Wilson, whose extreme views on immigration put him well outside the mainstream of everyday Arizonans.

"That’s not how a friend of the Latino community behaves."

Mitt Romney: Disastrous for the middle class, disastrous for Latinos, and disastrous for Arizona.

Today in New Mexico, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz joined a women-to-women phone bank at OFA New Mexico's Albuquerque office. Check out this picture of the chair talking to a woman who is "in," and sign up to make calls to women in your area.

Over the course of his 2012 campaign, President Obama's been hosting the occasional dinner for a few lucky supporters, giving him a chance to share a meal and ideas with the folks who are building the campaign on the ground. Today, he sent out an email announcing that there's another Dinner with Barack coming up, and you could be one of his guests. It's easy to put your name on the list, but hurry—the first guest will be invited tomorrow.

Here's what the President had to say:

Tomorrow night, we'll pick the first of four supporters who will sit down with me for dinner. I'm hoping you'll take me up on the invitation.

Donate $3 or whatever you can today to be automatically entered for the chance to be my first dinner guest.

These meals are one simple thing that sets this campaign apart. The seats at our table don't belong to any Washington lobbyist or powerful interest. These seats are yours.

Donate $3 or more today and be automatically entered to win.

Hope to see you,

Barack

On January 18, 2011, the President issued Executive Order 13563, in which he directed regulatory agencies to base regulations on an “open exchange of information and perspectives” and to promote public participation in Federal rulemaking.  The President identified Regulations.gov as the centralized portal for timely public access to regulatory content online. 

In response to the President’s direction, Regulations.gov has launched a major redesign, including innovative new search tools, social media connections, and better access to regulatory data.  The result is a significantly improved website that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules.

The redesign of Regulations.gov also fulfills the President’s commitment in The Open Government Partnership National Action Plan to “improve public services,” including to “expand public participation in the development of regulations.” This step is just one of many, consistent with the National Action Plan, designed to make our Federal Government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are technical interfaces/tools that allow people to pull regulatory content from Regulations.gov. For most of us, the addition of “APIs” on Regulations.gov doesn’t mean much, but for web managers and experts in the applications community, providing APIs will fundamentally change the way people will be able to interact with public federal regulatory data and content. 

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Last Friday, President Obama traveled to the Boeing aerospace factory in Everett, Washington. He met with workers and discussed his blueprint for an economy built to last with the renewed strength of American manufacturing. Part of the President’s message will focus on the Administration’s commitment to strong enforcement of U.S. trade agreements. The enforcement of trade agreements is vital to the success of large U.S. exporters like Boeing, as well as hundreds of firms of every size throughout Boeing’s global supply chain. 

Here in the United States, from Washington to Kansas to South Carolina, tens of thousands of Americans depend on Boeing and its suppliers for a job and a place to put their skills to work. Trade agreements that guarantee a level playing field for global competition help make it possible for Boeing to sell its airplanes around the world in support of jobs here at home.   

Boeing, like other American companies, knows from experience the importance of strong trade enforcement. For many years, the EU and its various member states provided Airbus, Boeing’s main global competitor, with more than $18 billion in subsidies. As a result, Boeing has been competing on an un-level playing field – losing market share and possible job-creating opportunities.  

Fortunately, last year the Obama Administration secured a victory against EU subsidies to Airbus. It was the largest verdict in the history of the World Trade Organization.  USTR is currently working to ensure that the EU implements the necessary changes and stops the illegal subsidies. Once implemented, this decision will lead to a more level playing field for Boeing and its many suppliers across America who support well-paying jobs for tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. 

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On October 31, 2011 President Obama signed an Executive Order directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action to help further prevent and reduce prescription drug shortages, protect consumers and prevent price gouging. Nearly four months later, it’s clear that the President’s Executive Order and the good work of the FDA are making a difference for the American people.

Since President Obama signed his Executive Order, FDA has prevented 114 drug shortages. In part, this resulted from the Administration’s call for voluntarily notification to the FDA of potential shortages. Notification of a potential shortage is crucial: with enough advance warning, FDA can take action to help stop a potential drug shortage. And since President Obama signed his Executive Order, voluntary notifications have increased six-fold.

Today, the FDA is announcing the steps it has taken to end the shortage of two important drugs that fight cancer:

• To avert an impending shortage of methotrexate, a drug used to treat children with leukemia, the FDA has worked with manufacturers to help ramp up production and has approved a new application to produce the version of the drug that is most needed , which will further bolster supply and ensure patients have access to this lifesaving medicine. 
• To end the shortage  of the cancer drug Doxil, the FDA will allow the temporary importation of a replacement drug. This action should address patient needs and end this drug shortage.

The FDA is also responding to President Obama’s Executive Order by releasing new draft guidance for the drug industry on requirements for both mandatory and voluntary notification to FDA of issues that could result in a drug shortage.

There is more work to do to prevent drug shortages. Congress still has not acted on legislation that would make notifying the FDA of potential drug shortages mandatory in more cases. And we know that there is no one single cause of drug shortages: everyone has a role to play to prevent shortages from happening.

But today’s announcement shows that we’re making a difference and protecting the health of the American people. And we’ll continue our aggressive efforts to prevent drug shortages and ensure patients get the medicines they need. 

Nancy-Ann DeParle is the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff

 

When I was six or seven years old, I remember spending hours flipping through National Geographic magazines looking at pictures of interesting people in far-away places. I was captivated by the idea that the U.S. was part of a global community. As an elementary school student, I didn't have any sense of U.S. foreign policy or cultural differences. I was too young to understand the complexities of war and terrorism, but somehow, I knew that we were part of something much bigger.    Later in my career, I heard several people express their disappointment with U.S. foreign policy and how the United States had lost its moral compass. Images of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal populated international newspapers, and I watched in dismay as the U.S.-led war in Iraq pressed on without evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the steadfast commitment of long-standing U.S. allies in the “war against terror” began to wane. I am still haunted by images of toppled statues and the “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” banner that gave the U.S. and our allies false hope.   By 2008, I was in search of a presidential candidate that recognized the importance of restoring America’s prominence in the world. I wanted a president that would recalibrate the nation's moral compass and position the U.S. as a responsible global citizen. There was not a doubt in my mind that our country needed a president that would restore the international community’s faith in the United States as a global leader—while protecting our interests abroad. I was in search of a president who believed that diplomacy was as important as military-might.    Finally, on February 10, 2007, when the (then) U.S. senator from Illinois declared his candidacy for the presidency of the United States on the wintery steps of the state capitol in Springfield—I  found that candidate. Senator Obama laid out a clear and compelling case for U.S. foreign policy that would defend Americans against the international threats of the 21st century while rehabilitating our image in the world and repairing our strategic international relationships. He committed to clarifying the scope of military engagement in Iraq and finishing the job in Afghanistan.    Over the past three years, President Obama has delivered on his campaign promises and has made monumental strides to restore America's prominence in the world. Since he was sworn in on that cold January day in 2009, the President has struck a seemingly impossible balance between diplomacy and security. He has managed to begin repairing relations with the Middle East while simultaneously dismantling Al Qaeda’s leadership structure and eliminating Osama bin Laden. In doing so, the President has reminded foreign agents who wish to do us harm that we do not forget transgressions against our citizens and that our advanced military should not be underestimated.   President Obama has also been a champion of economic diplomacy and has signed trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama. The President has also sent a message to countries around the world about the path to nuclear disarmament by signing the New START Treaty with Russia, which advances nuclear non-proliferation between our two countries.  Perhaps most impressive, are the President’s efforts to navigate the tensions of the Arab Spring.    Our world has shrunk dramatically since my early childhood. In an age where the blinding pace of globalization, omnipresent connectivity of the internet and the threat of terrorism make our country vulnerable, we need a president who will elevate the reputation and standing of our country around the globe. President Obama has answered this call and deserves another four years in the White House.    During his first term in office, he has been an unflinching guardian of our nation’s security, a champion for U.S. products in the global economy and a good steward of the international community. Our commander in chief has proven to be a skilled diplomat for the American people, and I am proud of how he represents the United States on the world stage.   To learn more about the President’s accomplishments and how he wants to move the country in the right direction, click here.